So you see that the difficulties are well-nigh insuperable.  Narrative would be trivial, conversation affected, motives inexplicable; for, indeed, the crucial difficulty is the absolute unaccountableness of boys’ actions and words.  A schoolmaster gets to learn that nothing is impossible; a boy of apparently unblemished character will behave suddenly in a manner that makes one despair of human nature, a black sheep will act and speak like an angel of light.  The interest is the mystery and the impenetrability of it all; it is so impossible to foresee contingencies or to predict conduct.  This impulsiveness, as a rule, diminishes in later life under the influence of maturity and material conditions.  But the boy remains insoluble, now a demon, now an angel; and thus the only conclusion is that it is better to take things as they come, and not to attempt to describe the indescribable.—­Ever yours,

T. B.

Upton,
May 28, 1904.

Dear Herbert,—­I am bursting with news.  I am going to tell you a secret.  I have been offered an important Academical post; that is to say, I received a confidential intimation that I should be elected if I stood.  The whole thing is confidential, so that I must not even tell you what the offer was.  I should have very much liked to talk it over with you, but I had to make up my mind quickly; there was no time to write, and, moreover, I feel sure that when I had turned out the pros and cons of my own feelings for your inspection, you would have decided as I did.

You will say at once that you do not know how I reconciled my refusal with the cardinal article of my faith, that our path is indicated to us by Providence, and that we ought to go where we are led.  Well, I confess that I felt this to be a strong reason for accepting.  The invitation came to me as a complete surprise, absolutely unsought, and from a body of electors who know the kind of man they want and have a large field to choose from; there was no question of private influence or private friendship.  I hardly know one of the committee; and they took a great deal of trouble in making inquiries about men.

But, to use a detestable word, there is a strong difference between an outward call and an inward call.  It is not the necessary outcome of a belief in Providence that one accepts all invitations, and undertakes whatever one may be asked to do.  There is such a thing as temptation; and there is another kind of summons, sent by God, which seems to come in order that one may take stock of one’s own position and capacities and realise what one’s line ought to be.  It is like a passage in a labyrinth which strikes off at right angles from the passage one is following; the fact that one may take a sudden turn to the left is not necessarily a clear indication that one is meant to do so.  It may be only sent to make one consider the reasons which induce one to follow the path on which one is embarked.